The invention relates to a cooker with a plurality of electric hot plates with thermostats or temperature regulators having temperature sensors which sense the temperature of the cooking vessel or the product being cooked.
When correctly operated such electric hot plates, known as automatic hot plates, are ideal for most boiling and roasting processes. When the temperature regulators are constructed as two-circuit regulators, i.e. two different power stages of the hot plate can be switched off by the thermostat at temperatures which follow one another relatively closely, such hot plates are extremely adaptable and guarantee an optimum rapid heating, while adhering to the set temperature in an optimum manner. However, frequently such hot plates are incorrectly operated, in that housewives accustomed to stepwise or continuous power control set the hot plates much too high, because they think that boiling will take place much more rapidly. The product being cooked is then heated to an excessive extent, which can lead to overcooking or burning. Particularly in the case of hot plates with a closed surface, which naturally have a certain heat storage capacity, it takes a time until the excessive temperature reached has declined again. As a result, even with correct operation the efficiency of the automatic hot plates is impaired. However, it would be incorrect to reduce the capacity of the hot plates, because then it would take unnecessarily long to bring to the boil.